Core Water is one of the most popular bottled water brands in the US. The company claims that their water is purified and "balanced with electrolytes."
But is Core Water good for you or not? What are the ingredients beyond water? Which Core Water flavor is the healthiest? And does the packaging make it less healthy?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Core Water to give our take on whether or not it's a healthy choice.
We'll explain why we consider single-use plastic bottled water to be unhealthy, and give our pick for the healthiest Core Water flavor.
Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Core Water Hydration (the unflavored product line) are shown above.
Potassium bicarbonate, magnesium chloride and calcium chloride provide electrolytes, but Core fails to publish the doses of each mineral, so we can assume their doses are negligible.
The good news is that there are no unhealthy additives like artificial flavors or colors, so from an ingredient perspective, we consider Core Water to be good for you.
However, it's the packaging that we disagree with from a health perspective, as we'll discuss in the next section.
Are Plastic-Bottled Drinks Unhealthy?
We recommend avoiding single-use plastic bottled drinks for both health and environmental reasons.
Estrogenic chemical compounds like bisphenol A (BPA) can leach from plastic into food and drink, as we documented in our is Hint Water healthy article.
In our opinion, the potential health downsides of drinking from single-use plastic outweigh any potential health benefits from the negligible electrolyte levels in this brand of water.
A YouTube creator and doctor named Mike Hansen has a video on why it may be a good health choice to avoid single-use plastic bottles:
What's the Healthiest Core Water Flavor?
Core's Hydration+ line may be slightly healthier than the brand's standard Hydration line because of the added ingredients.
Below are the ingredents in Core Calm (a Hydration+ flavor):
L-theanine is a functional ingredient.
It's an amino acid that was described as having "excellent therapeutic effects on mental health" in a medical review published in the Frontiers in Nutrition journal.
In particular, l-theanine is clinically shown to have an anti-stress effect, as we documented in our U Relax review article.
Our Clean Water Picks
Brita Water Filter is our top value water filter pick.
It's been shown in studies conducted by ConsumerLab (an independent research firm) to significantly reduce heavy metal levels and entirely eliminate microplastics.
Sans Water Purifier is our top premium water filter pick.
The product is NSF-Certified, and is clinically shown to not only remove common contaminants like heavy metals, but also toxins like nitrate and PFOAs ("forever chemicals").
Pique Daily Radiance is our top water flavoring pick.
These packets are naturally flavored with nutritious ingredients like organic elderberry juice concentrate (which is clinically shown to support the immune system) and organic lemon juice concentrate.
